Milford 57, Canton 17: Mission statement

The Milford wrestling team is clicking early in the season, and making a statement by doing so. With this being the Scarlet Hawks' first year in the Hockomock League, they feel that every time out is a chance to prove themselves against unfamiliar competition. They did just that on Thursday night, beginning 2013 with a decisive 57-17 win over Canton in a league meet.

The Milford wrestling team is clicking early in the season, and making a statement by doing so.

With this being the Scarlet Hawks' first year in the Hockomock League, they feel that every time out is a chance to prove themselves against unfamiliar competition.

They did just that on Thursday night, beginning 2013 with a decisive 57-17 win over Canton in a league meet after ending 2012 with a fourth-place showing at the competitive Framingham Holiday Tournament.

Milford improves to 5-1 overall and 3-1 in the Hock, while the Bulldogs drop to 2-6 (0-3).

"We feel like every time out this year is kind of a statement match for us," said Milford coach Peter Boccia. "This all still pretty new to us. Being in the Hock is a whole different chance to face competition that we normally wouldn't see before this year. We don't see teams like Canton, so our guys always want to come out and set the tone. It's new for us as coaches and for the guys on the mat as well so it's always nice to come out with a league victory."

After Canton had sliced Milford's 23-0 lead after four matches down to 23-17, Milford's Matt Mazzuchelli got a momentum-turning pin against Reda Chakir just 16 seconds into their match at 152 pounds that sent the Scarlet Hawks surging toward victory.

Milford's Riley Morgan followed with a first period pin in his match at 160, and then Mike Shea only needed 17 seconds to pin Caleb Nix at 170 and put Milford up 41-17.

Justin Speroni (182), Gabe Caetano (195) and Grady DiAntonio (285) closed out the night with wins as well for the 40-point victory.

"I thought we really came out strong as a team and everyone was ready to wrestle tonight," said Mazzuchelli. "They had a few kids that have been wrestling really well this year and I thought we did a good job against them overall. It was a good win for us to hopefully we'll keep momentum rolling here during the rest of the season."

Early in the night, it seemed the Scarlet Hawks would run away with things before they eventually did.

Drake Meurant (106) got things started with a default victory. Steve Collins (113) and Diego Pinto (120) then both earned victories via pin in the first and second periods of their matches, respectively.

Finally, Charlie Hicks earned a dominating 18-1 major decision at 126 to put the Scarlet Hawks up 23-0.

But then Canton's Chris Sullivan (132), Quinn Merrigan (138) and Rob Dicalagera (145) made things interesting when they took down Brian Reardon, Brandon O'Neill and Jeff Costa in succession to cut Milford's lead to 23-17 before Mazzuchelli's momentum-shifting win.

As the season rolls on, it's becoming more and more apparent every time out that the Milford wrestlers are competing with a chip on their shoulder, and they aren't afraid to say it.

Page 2 of 2 - "I feel like every day, every match is a statement for us," said Shea. "We look at it as we came into the league as underdogs and unproven. The good thing for us is that we all have that same mentality and we all have something to prove. We all believe in each other's ability and we believe in the coaches just as much as they believe in us, so we have a good mix going right now."

If things continue the way they've been going, Milford won't have to hunt for respect much longer, and Shea believes that's not far off.

"I think if we keep working and putting the effort that we have been," he said, "then the other Hockomock teams are definitely going to have some competition because I don't think we're going anywhere anytime soon."